Two weeks ago, SpaceX launched it’s third successful mission placing 60 more Starlink satellites into low earth orbit, bringing the total number of global internet powering satellites to 180. That is far from the planned system completion threshold of 12,000, but it does establish that SpaceX has the formula down and isn’t going to stop [...]
A Switched Filter Bank is a device that combines switches and filters to provide user-selectable frequency channels. Switched filter banks are beneficial to Radio Frequency (RF) communication systems and are utilized in both receivers and transmitters to reduce signal interference from harmonics, spurious emissions, strong signal interferers, and to limit noise power for optimized system [...]
Constellation diagrams are 2D graphical representations of digitally modulated signals. They are used for the display and analysis of digitally modulated waveforms, and provide valuable insight into the performance of a digital communication system. Digitally modulated signals encode information within a sinusoidal carrier wave by mixing it with a discretized message signal, therefore modifying the [...]
Radio wave applications have come a long way since it was first theorized by James Clark Maxwell in his 1873 work “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”, where he laid out mathematical theories showing the potential applications of radio technology. Only fifteen years later, German Physicist Heinrich Hertz became the first person to produce, transmit, [...]
Low-power UAV radio systems, though designed for short distance communications, can be an inexpensive and reliable means of communications over greater distances – especially when the application is small UAS platforms. Many of these radios come with a variety of options including programmable bandwidths, RF power settings, and modulation type. Usually the bandwidth and modulation [...]
The requirements of modern datalinks in the UAV and large airframe market present challenges for systems designers. Many modern communication systems often require full-duplex operation, and several systems may be operating on a single airframe. At the same time size, aerodynamic and radar signature concerns can limit the ability of designers and integrators to add [...]
Achieving both high linearity and high efficiency together in a Radio Frequency (RF) Power Amplifier (PA) system is challenging. Typical designs for highly efficient PAs (i.e., greater than 40% DC power efficiency) involve operating devices in their non-linear range, i.e., at or near compression (saturation). A PA operating in its nonlinear region inherently creates distortion [...]
The Department of Defense (DoD) purchases a vast array of electronic and electrical devices that must be integrated into various platforms with many other devices and function without degraded performance (electromagnetic susceptibility), and conversely, must function without causing degradation of performance for other devices (electromagnetic emissions). Similarly, electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a commonly used term [...]
Why is RF filtering so important? Simply put, filters reduce the interference in the environment that affects the performance of the communication system, and reduce the interference caused by the communication system. The lack of RF filtering can affect the performance of the UAS in a number of ways: Communication range is reduced due to [...]
Like a locust super-swarm in Madagascar, similar to a scene in BBC America’s “Planet Earth II” (image 1), commercial and government programs alike are aiming to employ “swarms” of UAV’s in domestic and overseas operations2. This includes counter-UAS systems, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, near-space and hurricane hunting drones. Swarms of UAVs can be controlled through autonomous [...]
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